Chapter 35
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
FIONA
Someone’s stroking my hair, and his voice is familiar.
Brantley.
“Will she be okay?”
Sebastian.
“You don’t need to worry.” I don’t recognize the third voice, but he sounds kind. “We checked her vitals and other than the burn on her foot and some scrapes and bruises, she’s just fine. But she is half dressed, so we’ll probably have to do a rape kit when we get back to the hospital.”
My head swims as my surroundings come into focus. “What the fuck is going on?” I groan.
“Fi,” B breathes and pulls me against him.
I blink and look around “Careful, big guy. My head is killing me.” I’m lying on a stretcher in the cabin driveway. There’s a fire truck on the road with a huge hose snaking toward the barn. From the way people are calmly walking around, I assume that the fire is out.
“Here, honey.” I look up at the EMT. He has a short beard and pretty hazel eyes. He smiles as he hands me some pills and a small cup of water. “That will help until we can get you to the hospital in Brighton.” He gives Seb and B a look and then looks at me. “Do you want to talk to me in private?”
I shake my head and clear my throat. “No, it’s okay.”
He stares at me for a moment and seems satisfied with my answer. “My name’s Ben.”
“I’m Fiona Flowers.”
“That’s a beautiful name. Do we need to do a rape kit, Ms. Flowers?” he asks slowly.
I swallow. “No, he didn’t rape me.”
“I see.” Ben writes something on a chart, and then holds it to his chest as he assesses me. “Well, you need to save the details for the police, okay?” I nod. “We’ll get out of here as soon as the fire truck packs up.”
Ben pats my shoulder and starts to walk away.
“Wait!” I call out. He pauses, giving me a questioning look. “Where’s Detective Lin? Is she here?”
Ben frowns. “I don’t know for sure, but I’ll ask around.” Then he walks toward one of the police officers.
I look tearfully at Seb and B. “I’m so sorry,” I whisper. “I know I shouldn’t have left like that, but I…”
“You don’t need to apologize, Fi,” Seb says. He walks to the other side of the stretcher and taking my hand. He brings it to his lips and gently kisses each of my fingers.
My stomach tingles.
B is sitting with me, his hands stroking my hair and face like he can’t stop touching me, and he nods, a fierce look in his eyes.
“I lost your jacket,” I choke. “And you loved that jacket.” I’ve literally never seen B without it, so I know it meant a lot to him.
B gives me an incredulous look. “Fiona, Jesus. It’s just a jacket.
All that matters is that you’re okay. And whatever you felt you had to do is in the past now.
Just…” His voice cracks and my heart cracks right along with it.
“Just please don’t do something like that again.
I can’t lose you. We can’t lose you.” He wipes tears quickly from his cheeks.
“I love you both,” I whisper. “So much.”
The guys share a knowing look, and then Seb meets my tearful gaze. “We love you too, beautiful. Always.”
“Fi, you’re awake.” I look over to see Charlie walking up to the ambulance, Link and Trey trailing behind her.
“You guys came too?” Guilt heats my cheeks when I realize that all I did was put the very people I was trying to protect in harm’s way.
Charlie smiles, tears streaking down her red cheeks, and wraps her arms around me carefully. “Of course, we came,” she whispers in my ear. “You’re our family.” I choke on a sob and hug her tightly.
When I pull back, Lincoln gives me a somber look. “I swear to God, Flowers, if you ever pull that shit again, I will kill you myself.”
Despite the emotional lump in my throat, I laugh and lean forward, wrapping my arms around him. He stiffens at first, but when Trey comes in from the other side, joining the hug, Link grumbles something about sappy shit, and gives in, kissing the top of my head.
“Ms. Flowers?” An Asian woman with a kind smile approaches me and extends her hand. “I’m Detective Lin. It’s so good to finally meet you in person.”
My eyes fill with fresh tears. “Thank you for coming,” I choke out.
“I wish we could have gotten here sooner,” she says with a frustrated sigh. “Some black ice grounded one of our vans on the way here, so we had to call for backup.”
“Did Dennis? I mean, he didn’t get out, did he?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t think so, though the fire will need to be investigated for his remains.”
“That wasn’t part of my plan. The fire, I mean.”
Detective Lin smiles. “Well, either way, it was very brave of your friend Micah to come forward as a witness. At this point, Dennis’s case is being transferred to the FBI’s sex crimes unit. They’ll have some questions for you later.”
“Thank you again for your help, Detective Lin.”
“Of course.” She squeezes my shoulder and leaves us.
B shrugs. “I guess it was a pretty good plan other than the whole putting-yourself-in-danger part.”
“Not really a fan of that either,” Seb grumbles. “You should have waited for us.”
“Would you have let me go if you knew?”
“No,” they say together.
After that, everything happens quickly. One of the fire people? A firewoman? I don’t know the proper term. But she takes a statement from me about the fire and explains that the local police and the FBI will meet us in Brighton. Then I’m loaded into the ambulance.
B and Seb fuss over who’ll ride with me, but in the end, Seb stays with me as the ambulance drives to Brighton while the others follow in Lincoln’s car and B’s truck.
My brain still hasn’t processed that I’m safe, and every time I drift off to sleep, I dream about Dennis’s deep voice and his bruising touch. I turn onto my side so that Seb can’t see me cry.
When we reach the hospital, I tell the FBI everything about Dennis. He’s presumed dead, so I don’t know if it matters anymore, but talking about my trauma, even to strangers, feels a bit cathartic.
The doctors do a bunch of tests on me, which seems redundant after everything the EMT did, but I endure their poking and prodding.
Seb and B hover like mother hens, and it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.
Eventually, I’m told that I don’t have a concussion, and a nurse treats and wraps my foot.
The guys take the instructions on how to care for me very seriously, asking questions about changing the dressing and medication doses.
I let them focus on the details because I’m exhausted.
I stare out the window blankly as we make the drive back to Vancouver. It makes the most sense to stay at Seb and Marcus’s place for now, so I’m not surprised when we pull into the parking garage.
Numbness pervades my body as we take the elevator up to the sixteenth floor, and when we get inside, I go straight to Sebastian’s bedroom and climb into his bed, pulling the covers up to my neck and burying my face in the soft pillow.
I curl into a ball and close my eyes, trying to forget the last twenty-four hours, but my thoughts are mingling with memories of the past, and I’m having a hard time telling the difference.
I wonder if I’ll ever be able to shake this empty, cold feeling that’s creeping into my brain like insidious tentacles.
I hear the guys’s voices as I drift in and out of sleep. They sound worried. I’m worried too.
One month later…
I’m finally starting to feel like myself again.
I convinced B and Seb to take me to Aiden’s to get my car now that it’s mid-March and the weather is warming, but we’re making a stop at my dad’s cabin first.
The gravel road up Mount Baker is clear now. I packed an overnight bag because I want to try to stay for the weekend. I was afraid to come back at first. I thought Dennis had tainted it, but coming off my depressive episode made me realize that the warm, fuzzy memories far outnumber the bad.
My road to recovery was a little easier than I thought it would be.
Physically, I was fine within a couple weeks, but I struggled with nightmares and manic episodes.
Thankfully, my found family has been so understanding.
Charlie and the guys came and stayed in Vancouver for a week, and Charlie spent every day with me in bed eating Twizzlers and watching episodes of The Vampire Diaries.
Anna even came to visit one afternoon. I’m not sure how she found out what happened, but I suspect the guys had something to do with it.
We talked about mundane life updates, but it felt good—like I was finally normal.
She even joked that she must be hard to get over if I had to resort to two cocks as a rebound fuck. That made me giggle.
As for the guys, they’re adjusting well to the throuple life even though I haven’t been up for any group activities since our last night in Lakeside. They’ve spent the last few weeks getting their lives back on track after our extended absence from the real world.
Seb is, of course, in the pub working his ass off, and he took on some cooking duties again, which made him happy.
Marcus loved his menu proposals, so now Seb’s working on hiring a worthy chef for the Seattle location.
There’s some fancy cooking award that he’s been going on about, and his determination and dedication are infectious.
B applied to be a junior hockey coach. Even though he can’t go hard, he can still skate, so teaching kids seemed like a good fit without him having to give up hockey entirely. His application was accepted quickly, and he starts next month. I’m so fucking proud of him.
I haven’t thought about my future at all over the past several months being preoccupied with my stalker stepdad and all.
Originally, I thought it’d be nice to get into the film industry, but after a bit of research, it turns out that my theater degree won’t get me very far.
So for now, I’m looking into positions at some of the local performing arts centers—I might even try out for a play, who knows.